Stone Church Film Presents ‘The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan,’ November 16
PRESS RELEASE
Stone Church Film presents…
The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan
7:30 pm, Friday, November 16
The Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church
20 Church St., Bellows Falls
BELLOWS FALLS, VT – Stone Church Film continues its silver screen offerings with a trip to war-torn Afghanistan and the life of a young boy growing up there. The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan will be screened in the Chapel of Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill, 20 Church St, in Bellows Falls at 7:30 PM, Friday, November 16.
For over 25 years, Afghanistan has been at war. Over two million civilians have been killed. In March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed the tallest stone statues in the world, the ‘Buddhas of Bamiyan’.
Over the course of a year, this film follows the story of one of the refugees who now lives in a cave among the ruins…an eight-year-old boy called Mir.
In 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the world’s tallest stone sculptures. By the summer of 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, more than 250 Afghans, most of them Hazara refugees, were living in caves beside the rubble. This film, organized chronologically over four seasons, follows a refugee family living there, including Mir, a smiling lad of eight. The landscape is stark, the winter is harsh, the refugees’ stories are harrowing, Mir’s school is crowded and ill equipped, helicopters move across the sky, and the roads carry mostly military vehicles, yet Mir’s family hopes for a house and a bright future.
According to SF Weekly, the film is “… astonishing and beautiful… There seems no better way than this film to see the effects of war and displacement on an ordinary family”.
Tickets are limited for this one-time showing. Advance tickets are $10 and are available in person at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, by phone at 802-460-0110, and online at www.stonechurcharts.org.